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Cheryl Sourkes

1945 -

"The process of making the work is the process of living a certain life, because none of the works are made in a moment. They’re accumulation on various levels of a world view."

Quote from View: The Canadian Photographer Series - Interview with Cheryl Sourkes by Martha Langford CMCP. December 17, 1985

For more than 25 years, Cheryl Sourkes has had a prolific career in the art world. It is through photography, and over the last several years through new technologies, that this Toronto artist expresses her ideas and concerns. Recurrent themes in her work include language, time, history, the real world versus the virtual world, and the ways we perceive and understand what we see around us.

University and post-graduate studies in sciences, psychology and biology at McGill University in Montreal and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver directed Sourkes to explore behavioural science, physiological processes and awareness. During her studies she discovered photography. Her work is inspired and shaped by her experience of the world around her. Each body of work is closely related to one another.

Selection and editing are an important part of Sourkes’ artistic process. She accumulates elements that inspire her. In her works from the 1980s, she establishes a link between language, illustration and photography. She creates photographic collages from images and words she obtains from different sources. For almost seven years now, Sourkes has been creating artwork using images pulled from webcams and transforming them into still images or videos. In her artwork she raises questions about time and space, public and private space, as well as our understanding of the real world, the virtual world and the social sphere.

Sourkes’ work is exhibited throughout the world and featured in several public and private collections such as the Vancouver Art Gallery, Air Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Concordia University Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Canada. She regularly writes articles for various publications and frequently curates exhibitions.